Queens Library adds Polish to online database

The Queens Library is home to one of the most innovative tools in library history, and it just got even better.
WorldLinQ - an online service created by the Queens Library in 1996 that allows non-English speakers to read multilingual online resources - recently added Polish to its database, bringing its total number of available languages to 15. The service is free for all members of the Queens Central Library and each community library. Additionally, it can be accessed anywhere in the world online at the service’s Web site, worldlinq.org.
Stuart Rosenthal, manager of the International Resource Center at Flushing Library, said that WorldLinQ has been having a highly successful year.
“In 2007, we had over 2.7 million hits,” he said. “This year alone, we may get four million.”
According to Rosenthal, it took around six months to update the database with links to resources in Polish.
“We have at least one librarian who speaks fluent Polish,” he said. “That person developed, searched for links, and translated for us.”
There are 13 different categories of links on the WorldLinQ site, including education, entertainment, health and medicine, history, and science.
The Queens Library is already looking to add more languages to its database and, according to Rosenthal, is currently in negotiations with a library in Germany which has a similar program.
“What we want to do is import the links from the German library,” Rosenthal said. “We did the same thing with a library in Prague.”
Rosenthal believes that a service like WorldLinQ is essential for the Queens library given the various different ethnicities within the borough.
“I think it’s a prerequisite,” he said. “People do use print media, but it’s convenient to use the internet at home. It’s up to date and it’s in users’ own languages, so it’s really a terrific service.”
The Queens Library serves 2.2 million people and has the highest circulation of any public library system in the United States.